Scottish Executive

Ferry Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give an assurance that the Mallaig to Armadale ferry service will continue irrespective of any decision on Skye Bridge tolls.

Nicol Stephen: We have no plans to withdraw the Mallaig–Armadale ferry service as a consequence of our commitment to end the discredited toll regime on the Skye Bridge.

Forestry

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in considering the case for a strategic timber transport fund.

Allan Wilson: COSLA and Forest Industries Development Council representatives met with Scottish Executive officials including Forestry Commission Scotland on 4 December 2003 to discuss the report on the case for a strategic timber transport fund. I expect to be in a position to respond to the report towards the end of next month (January 2004).

Justice

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues in respect of the operation of court custody officers.

Cathy Jamieson: Officials in the Justice Department are currently working with the police to produce operational guidance on police custody and security officers. The Sheriffs Association and the Scottish Courts Service will also be invited to comment on the terms of the guidance before it is issued.

Public Transport

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the percentage of the £6 million grant, paid to Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive for the development of park-and-ride facilities at Croy Station in 2001, that remains unspent.

Nicol Stephen: Following the announcement on 21 March 2002 of £5 million to expand the park and ride facilities at Croy Station, Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority (SPTA) plans to deliver this project in two phases. The first phase, for which the Scottish Executive has made total payments of £152,913 to date to SPTA, involves the provision of a temporary car park, the introduction of a feeder bus service from Cumbernauld to the station, and the development of long-term proposals for park and ride provision. SPTA expect to claim a further £300,000 for costs incurred during the remainder of this financial year.

Rail Services

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what rolling stock it has bought this year and at what price.

Nicol Stephen: None. The Executive has funded Scotrail’s procurement of rolling stock to be used on the Scottish rail network through leasing arrangements.

Rail Services

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any rolling stock purchased by it will be leased or given to any train operating company.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive has not purchased any rolling stock; all rolling stock is owned by the rolling stock company who lease the rolling stock to the train operating companies. We have committed grant assistance to offset leasing costs.

Rail Services

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what revenue it has received, or expects to receive, from any train operating company through leasing rolling stock.

Nicol Stephen: None.

Rail Services

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what use will be made of any monies received, or expected to be received, from any train operating company through leasing rolling stock.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive will not receive any money from the lease of rolling stock. All rolling stock is leased from a rolling stock company which leases it to train operating companies.

Rail Services

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is allocating any money towards the maintenance and cleaning requirements of new trains.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive has allocated funds to meet the procurement, maintenance and cleaning costs of new trains.

  The funds are not allocated separately to maintenance and cleaning requirements.

Rail Services

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, subject to its business case test being satisfied, it would increase its notional contribution towards the Borders Railway if the Strategic Rail Authority failed to deliver their anticipated contribution of £4 million.

Nicol Stephen: I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-4596 on 15 December 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Roads

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many owners of domestic dwellings on the route of the proposed online upgrade of the A80 it intends to have discussions with in respect of the impact of the upgrade on their property.

Nicol Stephen: It is too early to say until the design process is fully developed. Discussions will be held with all of those whose land is to be acquired for the scheme or who have heritable rights which might be affected.

Scottish Executive Staff

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made provision for any of its staff giving evidence to the Holyrood Inquiry to receive counselling and, if so, what the cost of such counselling will be and from which budget line it will be met.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive’s general arrangements for the availability of counselling support for staff in a variety of circumstances, as part of our commitment as an employer to exercise a duty of care towards our staff, are available to Scottish Executive witnesses, if they wish to take up the service. The costs will depend on take up and will be met from the Scottish Executive occupational health budget within the overall Scottish Executive administration budget.

Sport

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive,  further to the answer to question S1O-6502 by Dr Elaine Murray on 20 February 2003, what the result of the review of sportscotland’s property portfolio was and whether a decision has now been reached with regard to which city will benefit from a new indoor football and sporting complex.

Mr Frank McAveety: The outcome of the review of  sportscotland’s property portfolio is set out in the report of the consultants, PMP Consultancy.  Sportscotland wrote to all MSPs on 7 July 2003 notifying them that the summary of that report is available on their website and, stemming from the findings of that review, of the outline plans for developing a network of multi-sports facilities across Scotland, one of which would also be a national indoor arena for competition. In September 2003,  sportscotland issued a briefing pack containing the outline specifications to all Scottish local authorities, governing bodies of sport and other potential partners. Potential partners have been invited to submit their stage one applications by 31 March 2004.